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Buttermilk Rolls

A yeast roll made with buttermilk, lard, and baking soda, brushed with sweet butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.

  2. Sift the flour into a bowl and add lard, sugar, and salt.

  3. Pour the warm yeast mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with buttermilk to form a moist dough.

  4. Set the dough in a warm place to rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and sprinkle baking soda over it, working it in thoroughly.

  2. Shape the dough into rolls and brush the tops with sweet butter.

  3. Let the rolls rise in a warm place for 25 to 30 minutes.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the dough so it becomes light and risen.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the rolls together.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and tang to form a soft, moist dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to help the rolls rise and brown.
Lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Working in the baking soda. Baking soda only leavens when it meets acid, so it must be worked evenly through the dough. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that taste bitter and rise unevenly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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